Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish was cursing Royals’ keeper Marcus Hahnemann after the American denied his side a share of the spoils on Saturday.

Hahnemann pulled off a tremendous save from Mikael Forssell to keep the score at 1-1, and Royals went on to clinch all three points with an Andre Bikey header less than 10 minutes later.

The former Scotland boss believed the stop was a pivotal moment in the game, but he still couldn’t hide his disappointment at allowing Reading to score two almost identical goals in what was a crucial relegation battle.

But City were also guilty of missing several more chances during the game, and McLeish believes that had his side been more clinical in front of goal, they could have taken the win.

That would, however, have been harsh on a Reading side who created the better chances over the 90 minutes, although both their goals came from freekicks.

“I was extremely disappointed,” said McLeish.

“It happened and there’s not a lot I can do about it now.

“I can’t go out there and head the ball out myself, so we’ve got to trust the guys to deal with these situations.

“We didn’t and the individual errors have cost us.

“There’s no doubt that, on another day, we could’ve won that game.

“The chances we had, the way we played, I really felt good about us getting back into it after half-time and we did and then Hahnemann’s pulled off a great save, fortunate maybe, but he’s there to do that.

“Mikael’s unlucky, but we’ve been through on the goalkeeper three times and we haven’t scored so I suppose you get what you deserve when you can’t supply the finishing touch.

“Because we can’t keep the ball out of the back of the net at the other end it’s looking like we have to score two or three goals to win a game.”

McLeish’s Birmingham side will certainly need to tighten up in front of goal if they are to avoid the drop.

Reading’s win opened up a five-point gap between themselves and the drop zone, while the Blues lie in 17th, still firmly embroiled in the relegation dogfight.